THE process governing the redevelopment of Perth Oval could become a local government election issue after concerns were raised by two Town of Vincent councillors.
THE process governing the redevelopment of Perth Oval could become a local government election issue after concerns were raised by two Town of Vincent councillors.
The councillors say the Town of Vincent could be left in debt by the development, for which a council loan to fund its contribution may be guaranteed by Perth Glory owner/ director Nick Tana, who was also a former business partner of Town of Vincent Mayor Nick Catania, and fellow Glory director/owner David Rodwell.
Councillors Basil Franchina and Kate Hall raised concerns about the arrangement to WA Business News.
The Town of Vincent is putting $4.469 million towards the redevelopment and the Western Australian Government is putting in $6.8 million.
Council recently released tenders for the naming, management and catering rights for the redeveloped stadium, which will help fund its share of the redevelopment. Those tenders have closed and the council received three tenders – two companies have applied for the catering rights and one company has applied for all three.
Mr Catania and Town of Vincent CEO John Giorgi have hit back at any allegations that the process has been mishandled and insist that the redevelopment will cost ratepayers nothing.
Mr Catania described the councillors’ concerns as “smut peddling” and “political grandstanding” in the lead-up to the May 3 mayoral election. He is running for re-election and is being opposed by Councillor Basil Franchina’s daughter, Maria.
Mr Catania said he had no conflict of interest regarding his previous business dealings with Mr Tana.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents show that Mr Catania was a business partner of Mr Tana from 1994 to 1997 in a venture called PNN Pty Ltd.
“It was a small insignificant travel agency on Main Street in Osborne Park that closed years ago,” Mr Catania said.
He said the approvals for the redevelopment had met not only strict local government standards, but also stringent State Government checks.
“This is the Town of Vincent getting in partnership with the State Government. The process has been open and above board,” Mr Catania said.
Mr Giorgi said council had approached Perth Glory’s directors about guaranteeing the loan to avoid the council falling into debt through the deal.
He said council had received in-principle support to the guarantee.
“We didn’t want council to go into a deal and have Perth Glory fall out of the competition,” Mr Giorgi said.
“We went to them to protect our costs.
Mr Giorgi said that despite the loan guarantee Perth Glory would only be one of the tenants at the stadium.
“It will be like Subiaco Oval, where the Eagles have an office there and both they and the Dockers play matches there,” he said.
Mr Giorgio said eight councillors had voted in favour of the funding arrangements when it had been raised at council last year and one councillor had declared an interest in the matter.
Mr Franchina said council had to be very careful about what it approved around Perth Oval.
“I am concerned that Nick Tana will be underwriting the council’s loan. What happens if something goes wrong? It [Perth Oval] is a piece of freehold land that the Town of Vincent owns. This is a question that councillors are starting to ask,” he said.
Mr Franchina said the council contribution had already risen from an original $3 million to almost $5 million, and that would not be the final cost.
“We have stage one to four. They can’t tell me what the final cost of all of this will be,” he said.
Councillor Kate Hall said she was concerned that Mr Tana was underwriting council’s loan.
Ms Hall said she felt that councillors had never been fully informed about how the Perth Oval redevelopment deal was being done.
“There’s been a lot of confusion. I don’t think we were correctly in-formed at the time,” she said.
However, not all councillors feel the same way.
Councillor Simon Chester said he felt the deal was a good one for Vincent because the town was faced with a more than $3 million cost to upgrade the facilities.
“We now have a deal that could provide a sustainable facility for the town,” he said.
“I feel more secure in the fact that Nick Tana offered the guarantee rather than Perth Glory.”
Mr Chester said the Town of Vincent had the opportunity to show what could be achieved through a cooperative approach between council, the State Government and a key stakeholder such as Mr Tana.
